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Ask HN: How to answer "How much should we pay you"

2 points by dholowiski 16y ago

This is a typical interview question - how much should we pay you. How do you/should you answer? Note- this is in reference to a salaried employee, not a freelancer, where the answer to the question would simply be 'this is my hourly rate...'

bediger 16y ago
I haven't had a chance to use this, but the Smith-Wenkle method seems like it should work well: http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/org/noel.html http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/org/noel.html
- dholowiski 16y ago
  That is fascinating. I really liked this sentence: "I am much more interested in doing (type of work) here at (name of company) than I am in the size of the initial offer. " It's such a loaded answer.
lacker 16y ago
The traditional advice is to dodge the question and make them name the first number. That advice works because they probably have a range in mind already. If you delay, they'll offer you something in the middle or lower part of that range, and you can negotiate them a bit up. If you name the first number and it's below or on the low end of their range, they will just accept and it will be worse for you.
dwc 16y ago
My past several jobs I have delayed salary negotiations until they have essentially decided to hire me and I have decided I want to work for them. Why talk salary if the relationship isn't going to work anyway? Once both sides know what they want to do, finding a number to make it work seems pretty easy. Put yourself in the manager's position: you've weeded through a big stack of resumes, interviewed some candidates who obviously aren't qualified, and made a decision about who to hire. At this point you can play salary hardball and risk losing the person you want, or you can pay toward the upper range. They picked you, and they will pay to hire you.
- kleinsch 16y ago
  Agreed. I never talk salary or details about benefits until I'm 100% sure I'm interested in the job. Optimize your (and the interviewer's) time, and stay on topics that either help you figure out if this is the job for you or help them figure out if you're the right candidate.
kleinsch 16y ago
I had an interview once where I successfully dodged the question asking how much I wanted, so the interviewer moved on to his next logical question: how much are you making right now? I refused to answer that one as well, and he got completely flustered, finally saying "If I don't know how much you're making right now, how do I figure out what to offer you?" When I wouldn't give that up, he decided that in order to figure out what I'm worth, he needed to know if I was married or had kids, since "people without a family seem to stay later and work harder." At that point, I gave up and walked out. Not surprisingly, when I spoke to my recruiter after the fact, she admitted that he had been unprofessional in other interviews as well, but sent me on the interview anyway. Lesson #542 on why never to work with recruiters.

2 points by dholowiski 16y ago

bediger 16y ago

I haven't had a chance to use this, but the Smith-Wenkle method seems like it should work well: http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/org/noel.html http://infohost.nmt.edu/~shipman/org/noel.html

dholowiski 16y ago
That is fascinating. I really liked this sentence: "I am much more interested in doing (type of work) here at (name of company) than I am in the size of the initial offer. " It's such a loaded answer.

lacker 16y ago

The traditional advice is to dodge the question and make them name the first number. That advice works because they probably have a range in mind already. If you delay, they'll offer you something in the middle or lower part of that range, and you can negotiate them a bit up. If you name the first number and it's below or on the low end of their range, they will just accept and it will be worse for you.

dwc 16y ago

My past several jobs I have delayed salary negotiations until they have essentially decided to hire me and I have decided I want to work for them. Why talk salary if the relationship isn't going to work anyway? Once both sides know what they want to do, finding a number to make it work seems pretty easy. Put yourself in the manager's position: you've weeded through a big stack of resumes, interviewed some candidates who obviously aren't qualified, and made a decision about who to hire. At this point you can play salary hardball and risk losing the person you want, or you can pay toward the upper range. They picked you, and they will pay to hire you.

kleinsch 16y ago
Agreed. I never talk salary or details about benefits until I'm 100% sure I'm interested in the job. Optimize your (and the interviewer's) time, and stay on topics that either help you figure out if this is the job for you or help them figure out if you're the right candidate.

kleinsch 16y ago

I had an interview once where I successfully dodged the question asking how much I wanted, so the interviewer moved on to his next logical question: how much are you making right now? I refused to answer that one as well, and he got completely flustered, finally saying "If I don't know how much you're making right now, how do I figure out what to offer you?" When I wouldn't give that up, he decided that in order to figure out what I'm worth, he needed to know if I was married or had kids, since "people without a family seem to stay later and work harder." At that point, I gave up and walked out. Not surprisingly, when I spoke to my recruiter after the fact, she admitted that he had been unprofessional in other interviews as well, but sent me on the interview anyway. Lesson #542 on why never to work with recruiters.